-
MIT's Compatible Time Sharing System (CTSS), along with other multi-user operating systems, helps pioneer instant messaging by allowing up to 30 users to chat in real time. -
Internet relay chat (IRC) allow users to conect to networls with client software to chat with groups in real-time. IRC peaked in popularity in the 1990s, but still has hundreds of thousands of user today -
As the 20th century draws to a close, the first major instant messaging platforms ICQ, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo battle for market share in the new instant messaging market. -
The first SMS message, "Merry Christmas", is sent over the vodafone GSM network in the U.K. in december -
Israeli company mirabilis launches ICQ, which allows users to chat one-on-one or in groups, exchange files, and search for other users. at its peak in 2001, ICQ had over 100 million account registered -
AOL launches AOL instant messenger(AIM), which pioneers the "Buddy list" concept. by the mid.2000s, AIM has the largest share of the instant messaging market in north america with 52% -
Yahoo! Messenger launches, allowing users with a Yahoo! ID to connect -
Across the pacific Ocean, tencent holdings launches its first successful app. It's called QQ, and it is initially a near-exact clone of ICQ -
Microsoft releases MSN Messenger, a competitor to AIM and Yahoo. by 2005, roughly 2.5 billon messanges are sent each day on the platform. in 2001, only 30 million SMS text messages were sent per moonth in The United States -
Apple launches iChat for its Mac OS X operating system, which is compatible with AIM -
Estonia enters the world of great technological milestones with the launch of Skype. At that time, it was presented as the first application that brought the world of video conferencing to the end user, using a "home" microphone and a webcam. -
Google launches Google Talk, which, integrated into Gmail, competes with other instant messaging programs to find its place. -
MySpace launches the first instant messaging platform built within a social network: MySpaceIM -
Facebook Chat is released, allowing Facebook users to message friends or groups of friends on the social network -
WhatsApp is presented as an instant messaging app on the mobile, with the capacity to send texts, video and audio for free. -
Facebook brings its Messenger to mobile phones as an independent App.